It is well known in the art to provide a finishing capping for an unfinished tread, as a replacement of a removed staircase carpet or as a repair element in the replacement of a worn-out tread. An example of such a capping is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,783,939 and includes a nosing at one end of a capping plate with an insert bonded to the underside of the capping plate. A further example is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,067,758 in which a stair construction element for renovation of a worn tread includes a tread portion provided with a nosing at a front margin thereof. My earlier U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,529 discloses a tread finishing plate comprising a top exposed layer of hardwood with a thin internal layer of a veneer bonded or laminated to the underside of the top layer, a nosing being provided at the front margin of the laminate. The prior art proposals suffer from the disadvantage that the facing layer tends to be of relatively thin gauge when compared to the thickness of a conventional tread and accordingly is weaker in strength than the nosing which is of stouter dimension. The result is that during normal use of the staircase the nosing tends to shear off with concomitant wastage of time, materials and the unpleasantness of the situation. A further disadvantage of these proposals is that it is seldom possible to obtain a proper and consistent abutment with the subjacent vertical riser. A less than satisfactory result is achieved.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved staircase finishing plate arrangement.